A Heart For A Hatchet
by TheCorruptedTeacups
Summary: Ember searches for his light in the darkness. How quickly will it be snuffed out? (This story is the beginning to a spin off of Alice in Wonderland.)


The sound of the morning's carriages heading to market over the rolling green hills woke him, the morning bell's last toll echoing off the stone buildings. Goose bumps raised on bare flesh as the boy rolled off the girl occupying his bed, the cracked window allowing the morning breeze to drift into the room. She had screamed like a Banshee in the night, but now she was as silent as the stones on the henge. As his eyes looked over her now bruising sweat soaked skin, his heart was calmed by how the lighting made her look like the one he loved, the sun shifting dirty hair to golden strands and ruddy skin to porcelain. She was not his love; she was too plain of heart and mind to even be compared to the angel that had stolen his heart.

He ripped a strip of fabric from her dirty skirts to tie around her neck to catch the blood, squishing the loose skin of her cheeks childishly so she pouted up at him. Rolling the body off the bed and shoving it beneath creaking metal frame he left her to be dealt with later, chuckling as the flat stomach she boasted so proudly of sunk inward as her last sputtering breaths died away and the last of her life seeped through the cotton to pool onto the floor.

 _"_ _It's her fault"_ He picked the pieces of glass from out of his bleeding knuckles before shuffling over to the rest of the broken shards on the ground, tossing the bloodstained one still clutched in his fist into the pile to be swept away. _"She said our angel would never love us. She brought it upon herself, she disrespected you."_ Grey eyes raked over deep set scars reflected in the last shard still attached to the frame before moving on to search for his clothing. _"She laughed at you, said you didn't have a chance, called you a freak. She deserved to be exterminated; she wasn't worth the sweat you broke for her."_ He hid his scars under a false smile and dark leather vest as he slid out the creaking wooden door to the rotting staircase to start the workday.

The bar below was dirty as usual. The bucket of soapy water thrown across the floor removed the mud that was caked to the entryway, the dust wiped away by the damp rag so often clutched in Ember's long fingers. Emberlain O'Shea, most often known as Ember, was the cleaning boy for the most downtrodden, low life infested bar in town and he liked it that way. He went about his job unbothered, with enough money to buy enough food and keep his mangled little room above. He liked things simple; it kept him out of trouble and out of the public eye as much as possible. Much to his dislike his rough life was quite known by many people in the town, a story that earned him the name Ember in the first place. Many people would say that he refused to go out, no matter how much you stepped on him he still glowed in the depths of the ashes, much to people's dismay. Nineteen years he'd been lower than the rats that ate the harvest, plaguing the town with his presence. _"How little do they know of what ill you could spread. If only you would allow us to deal what is due, you could stop hiding and take her for yourself. The loose lips of those around her would no longer spoil her for you."_ "Shut up!" he screamed, voice rough from laying unused in his throat for too long. "I will earn her right; she's too good for that type of behavior." _"You mean she's too good for filth like you"_ The blow he dealt to the bar top knocked a nearby glass over, spilling the leftover brandy from the night before. Quickly finishing his first round of cleaning, Ember left to address his daily needs.

The flood of people streaming from their houses for their days work parted as he passed, fathers pulling their sons away as the stared up at the boy who glared at them all through wild black hair. He addressed his routine, collecting the leftover goods from yesterday's work; stale bread from the bakery, cold pies from the shop, warm milk from the grocer, mushy apples from the market, scraps from the seamstress, a single Marigold from the flower shop. It was on his way to collect the damp wood from the forest's edge that he stopped to pay mind to any other person; his shoulders slumped as the heavy sack dug into him. He ducked behind the tree of her neighbor's yard when he saw her watering the flowers in the afternoon sun, flawless skin shadowed by the delicate parasol in her hand.

She was an angel of god on earth, and he was the devout; worshipping her at the altar and longing to join her in the divine realm that was the ivy covered white stone house she lay her head in. _"Or those white silken sheets that flutter in the breeze on laundry day. We'd like to join her in those as well."_ Biting his tongue enough to draw blood to silence the stirring in his stomach, Ember smoothed down his tangles and brushed the bangs from his eyes as he continued towards the house with the flower in hand.

Her brother eyed him distastefully from his spot chopping wood, the blade making a deafening smack with each swing in a rhythm that Ember's steps fell in time with as he neared the gate by which she stood. Golden curls cascaded over her shoulders as she bent to water the small tulips at the pathways edge, almost dropping her parasol in the process. He caught it for her, holding over her to shield her from the harsh sun as she lifted full brown eyes to look at him.

"Hello Ember." Pale lips pulled into a soft smile as she acknowledged him, curtsying demurely. He bowed back, placing the pale wood of the parasol handle into her hand.

"Good afternoon Annabelle, I hope you are doing well. I have not seen you since last Sunday's service." His voice cracked as he spoke, the butterflies floating up from his stomach into his throat.

Her face fell, her lip catching between her teeth as her eyes widened. "Yes, I was away to attend to some business."

"And what might that be? If you don't mind me asking of course." He felt his eye twitch her apprehension bled into the air.

"I was visiting my future home."

The air became thick with his fury, his voice rising as he became agitated. "What do you mean your future home?"

The glinting silver at the base of her parasol caught his eye, drawing him down to finally catch sight of the silver ring with inset diamonds adorning her left hand.

Immediately his head filled with the laughter of the voices that only spoke when he was in agony, his entire body jerking back to get away from the realization of what was happening. His angel was being dragged from his heaven and thrown down onto earth.

Composing himself, he stared at her as his throat began to feel thick and his eyes began to blur. "So you are to be married?"

She could only nod, for as she opened her mouth to speak a great carriage rolled down the rocky road, the giant Clydesdale hooves snapping twigs as it came closer. The brother lodged the hatchet into the splitting stump with a great "WHACK!" before moving into the house.

The man who stepped out of the carriage was everything Ember could never dream to be. Thick strong fingers gripped golden fixtures set into ivory as his shiny boots kicked up dust, the new enemy walking towards them with his head held high and white teeth gleaming.

Ember could not move as Annabelle bid him farewell with a smile and led her husband-to-be into her home, leaving her follower on the pathway with shaking hands and a shattered being, only accompanied by a single flower whose beauty stuck to the bottom of a shiny shoe.

It was later in Embers bedroom that he broke, fists making great dents into the wall as he let loose the fury that was boiling inside him. Great clumps of thick hair stuck to his forehead as he tore the final feather from his mattress with a cry of anguish. "She is mine! How dare they sell her away, take her from me, she is not theirs to put off at auction." He shuttered as sobs ripped from his throat, his body falling into the piles of down covering floor.

 _"_ _She'll never love you now."_

 _"_ _She looked so happy, how dare she?"_

 _"_ _Guess she's not what she seems, the whore."_

"QUIET!"

The room fell silent; the only sound the scampering feet of a startled rat crossing the floor. With quick hands it was dead, its neck broken and the matted fur clutched between long fingers. The fading warmth of the creature was pressed to the wrinkled white shirt of Ember's chest, tears falling onto the top of its head.

 _"_ _What do we do?"_

The voice roused Ember from his near-catatonic state, bloodshot eyes landing on the corpse curled under the rickety metal frame that held his mattress hours before. Teeth grinding as he grinned cruelly, taking the girls hand in his to squeeze it tightly. He chuckled.

"We get rid of him."

The light was getting dim as he paced the forest across from her home, watching into the lighted window of her dining room as the enemy bent her to his will. Those pearly white teeth glinted as he leered at her; those teeth, how he hated those teeth. There were unnatural, grotesque in their perfection, smooth like a snake. The enemy was the snake taking away his Eden, tempting her with his nice things.

 _"_ _You're just jealous."_ His mother's voice rang inside his head, forcing him back to the memory of her lying across her bed, one of her patrons kissing down her spine, as Ember asked if she would sing to him so he could get to sleep. _"You're just jealous you're not the one being wanted."_

The door opening brought him back to the present, the enemy leaving her home. Perhaps he was going for a walk; perhaps he was staying in the rooms at the tavern. Whichever it was Ember did not care as he followed him down the path, a butcher knife in hand. It was when the enemy stopped suddenly that he attacked, pouncing on him and driving the blade deep into his chest. Over and over he stabbed, flinging blood across the meadow as he banished the snake from the garden forever.

After breaking open the ribs and removing the still warm heart, Ember shoved the body into the tree line to disguise it as an animal killing. Wrapping the heart in parchment, he moved back towards the lights of the house to finish his plan.

The next morning a rush of excitement followed the toll of the morning bell, the blood curdling scream that drifted on the winds into town sending its people into a frenzy. Ember moved from his window-side view of his bedroom to the pile of sheets on his floor. The red bled from his shirt onto the cotton as he took a much needed rest, smiling at the roar of voices coming from below that lulled him into unconsciousness.

"Open the door!"

He awoke to a banging from his door, the drawers of the dresser set against the doorknob rattling with each strike.

"We know you're in there!"

"Open up! There is no use hiding, we know it was you!"

"It was witnessed!"

 _"_ _You've made a mistake."_

Ember quickly rose from his place on the floor, backing away from the door as the cries from the other side became more aggressive. His back hit cool glass, the light from the setting sun blocked as he leaned against the window. The wood of the door shattered as it was hit, cracking down the length of the panel as they bombarded it with fists. His breathing quickened as they pushed, his mind whirling with what to do.

 _"_ _Run."_

Shaking fingers pried open the rusting window before he slipped through it to balance on the slanted roof covering the entrance to the bar, catching his balance on the lopsided metal sign before allowing himself to slide to the edge and land on the ground feet below. With angry cries of the crowd behind him, Ember ran. Heavy boots kicked up dirt as he raced down the road out of town before turning into the thick trees of the forest, leaving the torches and mob far behind him.

He did not catch his breath until the thick trees muffled the sound of voices, pausing only for a moment before moving through the forest with eyes kept on the thinning tree line at its edge. After what felt like hours of moving slowly as branches cut his cheeks and stuck leaves to his hair, he came to stop on a decaying log in a cleaner area of the forest. His hair was pulled at the roots as he raked his finger through it, curling into himself as he sat alone in the dim moonlight.

 _"_ _Like a rat."_ Came the voice, echoing in his head.

 _"_ _They don't want you to love her."_

 _"_ _They don't want you to be loved."_

 _"_ _You're undeserving of it anyway."_

 _"_ _You're worth so much more than this."_

 _"_ _They're all filthy animals."_

 _"_ _You're pathetic"_

 _"_ _Maybe if you go to her she'll love you now."_

"You're a lunatic." The voice that came was not from inside his head, but from the trees in front of him. Standing abruptly he cried out, voice shaking with fear as he dug into his pocket for the small knife he kept there.

"Who's there?"

The vision that emerged from the trees was not the one that haunted his dreams. Moonlight bathing her face, she was a fearsome sight. Golden hair hung in great matted clumps around her tear streaked face, eyes bloodshot as they stared at him from across the clearing.

"Annabelle." It was all he could say, her name choked out in a broken sob as he looked upon her in such a state. She recoiled at her name, turning her eyes away from him.

"Why would I love you?" The question struck him to his core, a harsh blow pushing the air from his lungs. He had been talking out loud. "After all you've done, how could you think that anyone would ever love you?"

Before he could open his mouth to answer she was speaking again. "You killed my future husband. You're a lunatic, completely vile like they've always said." Ember ground his teeth at her words, hot tears rolling down his cheeks as her words pierced through his last bit of humanity.

"Be quiet!" He screamed. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"We knew it was you! My brother saw you stalking our home near the forest, he knew it was you who had-"She stuttered, voice strained through her sorrow. "You killed him. And then you left this disgusting, shameless gloat of your evil on our doorstep!" She stepped into the light, in her hand was the enemy's heard, cleaned of all extra tissue and spreading red across her fingers as she thrust it towards him.

It was then that he noticed the hatchet held in her opposite hand, the rusting metal of the blade glinting again in the moonlight like it had before in the afternoon sun as it was swung down by her brother into the wood.

"Annabelle, please, I only did what was best for us. What needed to be do-"

"THERE IS NO US!" With her fury she threw the heart towards him, its bloody surface glinting in the light as it landed at his feet. "There was never any chance that I would love you." With each word she moved towards him, the hatchet clenched in her fists.

"But you've always been so nice."

"I took pity on you. I took pity on your insanity, on your pathetic and filthy life, on the story of your failure of a mother. I never felt anything but pity for you."

 _"_ _You have no-one."_ He came undone, lunging for her throat with jagged finger nails as screams filled his mind.

His skull rattled as he hit the ground hard, cracking twigs under his body as her blow knocked him to the ground. Disbelief filled him as she hovered over him, heavy droplets spilling from her eyes and onto the open wound crossing the front of his chest, mixing with the blood that began to spill from the laceration.

"You've always been my angel." His voice was soft as he gazed up at her, a halo of moonlight around her, arms raised and a fury that burned in her eyes as he pleaded. With one last blow from the flat of the blade, the ember had been snuffed out.

The sound of the morning's carriages heading to market over the rolling green hills woke him, the morning bell's last toll echoing off the stone buildings. Goose bumps raised on bare flesh as the boy rolled off the girl occupying his bed, the cracked window allowing the morning breeze to drift into the room. She had screamed like a Banshee in the night, but now she was as silent as the stones on the henge. As his eyes looked over her now bruising sweat soaked skin, his heart was calmed by how the lighting made her look like the one he loved, the sun shifting dirty hair to golden strands and ruddy skin to porcelain. She was not his love; she was too plain of heart and mind to even be compared to the angel that had stolen his heart.

He ripped a strip of fabric from her dirty skirts to tie around her neck to catch the blood, squishing the loose skin of her cheeks childishly so she pouted up at him. Rolling the body off the bed and shoving it beneath creaking metal frame he left her to be dealt with later, chuckling as the flat stomach she boasted so proudly of sunk inward as her last sputtering breaths died away and the last of her life seeped through the cotton to pool onto the floor.

 _"_ _It's her fault"_ He picked the pieces of glass from out of his bleeding knuckles before shuffling over to the rest of the broken shards on the ground, tossing the bloodstained one still clutched in his fist into the pile to be swept away. _"She said our angel would never love us. She brought it upon herself, she disrespected you."_ Grey eyes raked over deep set scars reflected in the last shard still attached to the frame before moving on to search for his clothing. _"She laughed at you, said you didn't have a chance, called you a freak. She deserved to be exterminated; she wasn't worth the sweat you broke for her."_ He hid his scars under a false smile and dark leather vest as he slid out the creaking wooden door to the rotting staircase to start the workday.

The bar below was dirty as usual. The bucket of soapy water thrown across the floor removed the mud that was caked to the entryway, the dust wiped away by the damp rag so often clutched in Ember's long fingers. Emberlain O'Shea, most often known as Ember, was the cleaning boy for the most downtrodden, low life infested bar in town and he liked it that way. He went about his job unbothered, with enough money to buy enough food and keep his mangled little room above. He liked things simple; it kept him out of trouble and out of the public eye as much as possible. Much to his dislike his rough life was quite known by many people in the town, a story that earned him the name Ember in the first place. Many people would say that he refused to go out, no matter how much you stepped on him he still glowed in the depths of the ashes, much to people's dismay. Nineteen years he'd been lower than the rats that ate the harvest, plaguing the town with his presence. _"How little do they know of what ill you could spread. If only you would allow us to deal what is due, you could stop hiding and take her for yourself. The loose lips of those around her would no longer spoil her for you."_ "Shut up!" he screamed, voice rough from laying unused in his throat for too long. "I will earn her right; she's too good for that type of behavior." _"You mean she's too good for filth like you"_ The blow he dealt to the bar top knocked a nearby glass over, spilling the leftover brandy from the night before. Quickly finishing his first round of cleaning, Ember left to address his daily needs.

The flood of people streaming from their houses for their days work parted as he passed, fathers pulling their sons away as the stared up at the boy who glared at them all through wild black hair. He addressed his routine, collecting the leftover goods from yesterday's work; stale bread from the bakery, cold pies from the shop, warm milk from the grocer, mushy apples from the market, scraps from the seamstress, a single Marigold from the flower shop. It was on his way to collect the damp wood from the forest's edge that he stopped to pay mind to any other person; his shoulders slumped as the heavy sack dug into him. He ducked behind the tree of her neighbor's yard when he saw her watering the flowers in the afternoon sun, flawless skin shadowed by the delicate parasol in her hand.

She was an angel of god on earth, and he was the devout; worshipping her at the altar and longing to join her in the divine realm that was the ivy covered white stone house she lay her head in. _"Or those white silken sheets that flutter in the breeze on laundry day. We'd like to join her in those as well."_ Biting his tongue enough to draw blood to silence the stirring in his stomach, Ember smoothed down his tangles and brushed the bangs from his eyes as he continued towards the house with the flower in hand.

Her brother eyed him distastefully from his spot chopping wood, the blade making a deafening smack with each swing in a rhythm that Ember's steps fell in time with as he neared the gate by which she stood. Golden curls cascaded over her shoulders as she bent to water the small tulips at the pathways edge, almost dropping her parasol in the process. He caught it for her, holding over her to shield her from the harsh sun as she lifted full brown eyes to look at him.

"Hello Ember." Pale lips pulled into a soft smile as she acknowledged him, curtsying demurely. He bowed back, placing the pale wood of the parasol handle into her hand.

"Good afternoon Annabelle, I hope you are doing well. I have not seen you since last Sunday's service." His voice cracked as he spoke, the butterflies floating up from his stomach into his throat.

Her face fell, her lip catching between her teeth as her eyes widened. "Yes, I was away to attend to some business."

"And what might that be? If you don't mind me asking of course." He felt his eye twitch her apprehension bled into the air.

"I was visiting my future home."

The air became thick with his fury, his voice rising as he became agitated. "What do you mean your future home?"

The glinting silver at the base of her parasol caught his eye, drawing him down to finally catch sight of the silver ring with inset diamonds adorning her left hand.

Immediately his head filled with the laughter of the voices that only spoke when he was in agony, his entire body jerking back to get away from the realization of what was happening. His angel was being dragged from his heaven and thrown down onto earth.

Composing himself, he stared at her as his throat began to feel thick and his eyes began to blur. "So you are to be married?"

She could only nod, for as she opened her mouth to speak a great carriage rolled down the rocky road, the giant Clydesdale hooves snapping twigs as it came closer. The brother lodged the hatchet into the splitting stump with a great "WHACK!" before moving into the house.

The man who stepped out of the carriage was everything Ember could never dream to be. Thick strong fingers gripped golden fixtures set into ivory as his shiny boots kicked up dust, the new enemy walking towards them with his head held high and white teeth gleaming.

Ember could not move as Annabelle bid him farewell with a smile and led her husband-to-be into her home, leaving her follower on the pathway with shaking hands and a shattered being, only accompanied by a single flower whose beauty stuck to the bottom of a shiny shoe.

It was later in Embers bedroom that he broke, fists making great dents into the wall as he let loose the fury that was boiling inside him. Great clumps of thick hair stuck to his forehead as he tore the final feather from his mattress with a cry of anguish. "She is mine! How dare they sell her away, take her from me, she is not theirs to put off at auction." He shuttered as sobs ripped from his throat, his body falling into the piles of down covering floor.

 _"_ _She'll never love you now."_

 _"_ _She looked so happy, how dare she?"_

 _"_ _Guess she's not what she seems, the whore."_

"QUIET!"

The room fell silent; the only sound the scampering feet of a startled rat crossing the floor. With quick hands it was dead, its neck broken and the matted fur clutched between long fingers. The fading warmth of the creature was pressed to the wrinkled white shirt of Ember's chest, tears falling onto the top of its head.

 _"_ _What do we do?"_

The voice roused Ember from his near-catatonic state, bloodshot eyes landing on the corpse curled under the rickety metal frame that held his mattress hours before. Teeth grinding as he grinned cruelly, taking the girls hand in his to squeeze it tightly. He chuckled.

"We get rid of him."

The light was getting dim as he paced the forest across from her home, watching into the lighted window of her dining room as the enemy bent her to his will. Those pearly white teeth glinted as he leered at her; those teeth, how he hated those teeth. There were unnatural, grotesque in their perfection, smooth like a snake. The enemy was the snake taking away his Eden, tempting her with his nice things.

 _"_ _You're just jealous."_ His mother's voice rang inside his head, forcing him back to the memory of her lying across her bed, one of her patrons kissing down her spine, as Ember asked if she would sing to him so he could get to sleep. _"You're just jealous you're not the one being wanted."_

The door opening brought him back to the present, the enemy leaving her home. Perhaps he was going for a walk; perhaps he was staying in the rooms at the tavern. Whichever it was Ember did not care as he followed him down the path, a butcher knife in hand. It was when the enemy stopped suddenly that he attacked, pouncing on him and driving the blade deep into his chest. Over and over he stabbed, flinging blood across the meadow as he banished the snake from the garden forever.

After breaking open the ribs and removing the still warm heart, Ember shoved the body into the tree line to disguise it as an animal killing. Wrapping the heart in parchment, he moved back towards the lights of the house to finish his plan.

The next morning a rush of excitement followed the toll of the morning bell, the blood curdling scream that drifted on the winds into town sending its people into a frenzy. Ember moved from his window-side view of his bedroom to the pile of sheets on his floor. The red bled from his shirt onto the cotton as he took a much needed rest, smiling at the roar of voices coming from below that lulled him into unconsciousness.

"Open the door!"

He awoke to a banging from his door, the drawers of the dresser set against the doorknob rattling with each strike.

"We know you're in there!"

"Open up! There is no use hiding, we know it was you!"

"It was witnessed!"

 _"_ _You've made a mistake."_

Ember quickly rose from his place on the floor, backing away from the door as the cries from the other side became more aggressive. His back hit cool glass, the light from the setting sun blocked as he leaned against the window. The wood of the door shattered as it was hit, cracking down the length of the panel as they bombarded it with fists. His breathing quickened as they pushed, his mind whirling with what to do.

 _"_ _Run."_

Shaking fingers pried open the rusting window before he slipped through it to balance on the slanted roof covering the entrance to the bar, catching his balance on the lopsided metal sign before allowing himself to slide to the edge and land on the ground feet below. With angry cries of the crowd behind him, Ember ran. Heavy boots kicked up dirt as he raced down the road out of town before turning into the thick trees of the forest, leaving the torches and mob far behind him.

He did not catch his breath until the thick trees muffled the sound of voices, pausing only for a moment before moving through the forest with eyes kept on the thinning tree line at its edge. After what felt like hours of moving slowly as branches cut his cheeks and stuck leaves to his hair, he came to stop on a decaying log in a cleaner area of the forest. His hair was pulled at the roots as he raked his finger through it, curling into himself as he sat alone in the dim moonlight.

 _"_ _Like a rat."_ Came the voice, echoing in his head.

 _"_ _They don't want you to love her."_

 _"_ _They don't want you to be loved."_

 _"_ _You're undeserving of it anyway."_

 _"_ _You're worth so much more than this."_

 _"_ _They're all filthy animals."_

 _"_ _You're pathetic"_

 _"_ _Maybe if you go to her she'll love you now."_

"You're a lunatic." The voice that came was not from inside his head, but from the trees in front of him. Standing abruptly he cried out, voice shaking with fear as he dug into his pocket for the small knife he kept there.

"Who's there?"

The vision that emerged from the trees was not the one that haunted his dreams. Moonlight bathing her face, she was a fearsome sight. Golden hair hung in great matted clumps around her tear streaked face, eyes bloodshot as they stared at him from across the clearing.

"Annabelle." It was all he could say, her name choked out in a broken sob as he looked upon her in such a state. She recoiled at her name, turning her eyes away from him.

"Why would I love you?" The question struck him to his core, a harsh blow pushing the air from his lungs. He had been talking out loud. "After all you've done, how could you think that anyone would ever love you?"

Before he could open his mouth to answer she was speaking again. "You killed my future husband. You're a lunatic, completely vile like they've always said." Ember ground his teeth at her words, hot tears rolling down his cheeks as her words pierced through his last bit of humanity.

"Be quiet!" He screamed. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"We knew it was you! My brother saw you stalking our home near the forest, he knew it was you who had-"She stuttered, voice strained through her sorrow. "You killed him. And then you left this disgusting, shameless gloat of your evil on our doorstep!" She stepped into the light, in her hand was the enemy's heard, cleaned of all extra tissue and spreading red across her fingers as she thrust it towards him.

It was then that he noticed the hatchet held in her opposite hand, the rusting metal of the blade glinting again in the moonlight like it had before in the afternoon sun as it was swung down by her brother into the wood.

"Annabelle, please, I only did what was best for us. What needed to be do-"

"THERE IS NO US!" With her fury she threw the heart towards him, its bloody surface glinting in the light as it landed at his feet. "There was never any chance that I would love you." With each word she moved towards him, the hatchet clenched in her fists.

"But you've always been so nice."

"I took pity on you. I took pity on your insanity, on your pathetic and filthy life, on the story of your failure of a mother. I never felt anything but pity for you."

 _"_ _You have no-one."_ He came undone, lunging for her throat with jagged finger nails as screams filled his mind.

His skull rattled as he hit the ground hard, cracking twigs under his body as her blow knocked him to the ground. Disbelief filled him as she hovered over him, heavy droplets spilling from her eyes and onto the open wound crossing the front of his chest, mixing with the blood that began to spill from the laceration.

"You've always been my angel." His voice was soft as he gazed up at her, a halo of moonlight around her, arms raised and a fury that burned in her eyes as he pleaded. With one last blow from the flat of the blade, the ember had been snuffed out.


End file.
